Delph facing key spell

GRANT JONES — Delph captain

DELPH captain Grant Jones reckons the next three games could make or break their Drakes Huddersfield League season.

Although they sit 13 points off the pace set by a rejuvenated Scholes, they haven’t given up hope of clinching a second premiership one crown.

Delph, in third place, start the vital run of matches at home to Slaithwaite (seventh in the table) on Sat-urday, before visiting reigning champions Honley (fifth) a week later and Elland (fourth) on August 1.

Jones said: “We believe we are still in the mix, but the next couple of weeks will have a huge bearing on our season.

“If we can win those games and Scholes slip up, we’ll be up there fighting for the title.

“The trouble is Scholes haven’t had a bad spell. They are a bit like Honley in that they haven’t got any outstanding individuals, they’ve just got a solid all-round side.

“They get the job done. If they find themselves in a sticky situation, somebody always comes good to get them out of it.”

Delph were left trailing in the title race after back-to-back defeats against Shepley and Golcar at the end of last month.

According to Jones, overseas amateur Bilal Khiljee took the weekend of woe badly.

Jones explained: “Bilal is playing well and has scored 650 runs for this season.

“The only blip on his season was when he scored one in each of the games against Golcar and Shepley. He said he didn’t sleep for three days after that.

“That’s the kind of man he is, because cricket means so much to him. He is a true professional in every sense of the word.”

On the day Shepley beat Delph, Scholes lost at Barkisland.

However, it was discovered that Tinashe Panyangara was ineligible for Barkisland and all six points were awarded to Scholes.

Without Barkisland’s misdemeanour, Delph and the chasing pak would have been closer to the pace.

The championship is Delph’s last hope of taking something from the season after they bowed out of the Romida Sykes Cup and Romida Twenty20 competition when they failed to qualify from the group stage on run-rate.